Saturday, April 5, 2014

The Hundredth Time's the Charm

So, in a twist of events, these muffins were actually made relatively recently. I decided to make them.................because I had ripe bananas and I wanted to try out a recipe from The Model Bakery Cookbook. I've made banana muffins many many times before, not exactly close to a hundred times, maybe closer to twenty, but basically I've made them a lot of times in various forms from chocolate to healthy whole wheat banana muffins, you name it. Up to this point, there wasn't really any banana muffin that I was particularly happy with or at least enough to post until this one.

This, my friends, is a banana nut muffin to top all banana muffins. The texture is not cake, nor is it banana bread, it's just banana muffins. When they're fresh out of the oven, you have a delightfully crisp muffin top exterior and a steamy soft interior, but they're just as delicious the next day or the day after that. As always, use bananas that are ripe, but the recipe adds that the bananas should not be so ripe that they are black as that will give them an off flavor. If I were to make any changes at all which I would do so ever so carefully, I might take out just a bit of sugar. I wouldn't want to sacrifice the texture though, so I'd have to try it to be sure. Here's basically the original recipe which is wonderful as is.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 deg F. Line a muffin tin with 9 liners.

Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. In a medium bowl with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the sugar, oil, and lemon juice together on high speed for a few minutes until pale. Beat in the egg.

On low speed, add the flour mixture in thirds alternately with the mashed bananas, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula as needed. Mix in the chopped walnuts.

Evenly scoop the batter into the lined muffin tin using an ice cream scoop. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp. of walnuts over the top of the muffins. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack to cool further. Store muffins in an airtight container, up to a day is best.